Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

What advice does anyone have regarding a 13 year old Arab gelding that 
spooks six feet sideways, suddenly, violently, so fast that I'm off before I 
realize it is happening?  He's rock solid on treacherous trails, never 
spooks on endurance rides, but trot him on an open road or field, and I'm 
fair game to him.  I'm fairly sure he is playing games with me, because he's 
had opportunity to blow up under some really unusual situations, but he 
doesn't.  Only on open roads at a trot.  Things like ferns and rocks and 
logs on the side of the road will precipitate this "pull the tablecloth out 
from under the silverware" technique.  Then he stands and looks at me as if 
he wonders what I'm doing on the ground.  Granted, this happened about 3 
years ago, during the interim my young granddaughter rode him and completed 
on him.  He finished Swanton Pacific 75 like a breeze.  G'daughter is now a 
senior in HS and too busy with 4-H and a boyfriend to ride at all.  I now 
have said horse back and I plan to ride him again...with a more secure 
saddle than a nice little English model.  But life would be more fun if I 
could know why he is doing this and how to deal with it.

Barbara

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lif Strand" <lif.strand@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "SHEILA A WALSH" <tondi313@xxxxxxx>; <alexis_mills@xxxxxxxxxxxx>; 
"ridecamp" <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2009 8:12 PM
Subject: RE: [RC] need advice about spooking/bolting


> Birds in trees and bicyclists are very different.  Horses should be used 
> to birds - they are everywhere, and natural enemies for horses don't come 
> from trees on wings.  Bicycles are different.  Gentle and gradual 
> desensitization is my advice, plus lots of acidophilus (probiotics), since 
> many horses that are spooky seem to benefit from lots of  probiotics.
>  _____________________________________
>
> Lif C. Strand
> Local Economic Development
> Catron County, New Mexico USA
>
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> check out the 4 ft. wide  horse murals!
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Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
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Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

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